Product Description

The conservative, thoughtful, thrifty investor’s guide to building a real-estate empire.

Profitable real-estate investing opportunities exist everywhere as long as you know what to look for and understand how to make prudent deals that transform property into profits. David Crook, of The Wall Street Journal, shows how to make safe and sane investments that ensure a good night’s sleep as your real-estate portfolio grows, your properties appreciate and your income increases. The Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook offers the most authoritative information on:

• Why real-estate investing is a great wealth-building alternative to stocks and bonds and why it’s crucial that you avoid get-rich schemes
• How to get the financing and make the contacts to get started
• How to start small and local, be hands-on and go step-by-step with a vacation home to rent out, a pure rental property or a small apartment building
• How to find and value great properties, do the numbers and ensure you have that beautiful thing called cash flow
• How the government blesses real-estate investors with tax breaks and loopholes, and how you can be one of the anointed
• How to deal with the nuts-and-bolts of being a landlord and have a strife-free relationship with your tenants

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5646 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-26
• Released on: 2006-12-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
DAVID CROOK is the editor of The Wall Street Journal Sunday, the personal finance section that appears in more than 75 papers around the country. He was part of the original team that developed and launched the highly successful “Weekend Journal” of Friday’s Wall Street Journal. He also developed the “Home Front” and “Property Report,” the Journal’s residential and commercial real-estate sections.

Customer Reviews

Good read.. very broad and a little dry
This is a good book with a unique point of view. It covers a very broad range of topics including financing, commercial, and others. The book offers some good advice. I did find it a little dry and drawn out at times. Regardless, a good source of practical information to round out your real estate studies. This book doesn't focus on this point and time in real estate but more of a timeless strategy.

A great place to start
First of all, this book is remarkable for being totally devoid of B.S.
How often can you say that about a book on any topic? Seems like a good jumping off point for a potential investor like myself. It's very broad and very basic. Mr. Crook employs a refreshing blend of encouragement and realism with an emphasis on discipline and preparedness.
While his approach rings true, I have a minor issue with his criticism of people with nice cars, boats, mansions, etc. as I believe there could be a season in life to enjoy those things responsibly if one so chooses. Besides this small bit of moral snobbery this was the perfect read for someone in my position.

Solid read
This book has a lot of very good points and ideas, but it won't be the last book you'll need. This book does offer a very handy list of websites and other suggested readings in the appendix. Overall, a solid book, but you will need to do more research for many real estate concepts.